Campaign Finance Reform

Is it just me? Is this obscene to you? A few thousand dollars, hell a couple thousand, would mean much to most people and pols have millions to use for campaigns.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has more than $22 million for her re-election run against two little-known New York Republicans, raising the possibility of plenty of leftover cash for a potential White House bid.

The former first lady said her campaign had raised almost $5.7 million over the last three months and had raised more than $43 million overall. The campaign has spent more than $21.7 million on her bid for a second Senate term.

Clinton had $19.7 million cash on hand at the end of March after raising more than $6 million during the first three months of the year.

Oh yeah, her opponents have a chance, as in fat chance. She'll bury them.

This Ain't People Magazine

This may be my first celebrity type post. I rarely read celebrity articles. Most celebrities are manufactured "perfect" people and, until Tom Cruise or others go bonkers on TV or in print, we only see their created image.

But some celebrities have substance and, more importantly, have the stage to affect common understanding and thought/opinion. I hope Brad Pitt is one such celebrity. Heaven knows America has to wake up to the Bushco debacle that's NOLA.

After two days of getting his first up-close look at post-Katrina New Orleans, Brad Pitt said Friday he was shocked at the devastation that remains almost a year later.

"I was not prepared," the actor said, describing how he drove [more likely was driven - ed] for miles and saw street after street of devastation.

Pitt was in New Orleans to give an update on a project he's promoting - a competition to choose ecologically sound designs for rebuilding neighborhoods.

"There's a big opportunity here," he said, to rebuild the city using energy-efficient building materials and appliances that would improve quality of life, particularly in low-income communities.

The following is a gratuitous cheesecake shot of Brad for the women readers.

They issued a joint statement demanding "an immediate halt on attacking civilians and vital infrastructure," saying such attacks breached international humanitarian conventions, and called for restraint on all sides.

Egypt and Jordan are the only countries in the region to have signed peace treaties with Israel.

WAR!

That's a title I never want to use, but have no choice now.

Israel is keeping up its blistering offensive against Lebanon after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared open war in a conflict that appears to be spiralling dangerously out of control despite international calls for restraint.

Combat jets bombarded Lebanon in a series of dawn raids, slamming missiles into bridges and petrol stations and killing four people on the fourth day of fighting that has so far claimed the lives of around 90 people on both sides.

Emerging unscathed after Israeli air strikes late Friday on his home and office in Hezbollah's southern suburbs, Nasrallah warned: "You wanted an open war, you will get an open war."

Mutually Assured Destruction In Middle East?

Probably. Until someone steps in, anyone with a cool head, there's no way for this current conflagration to resolve itself well at all.

ISRAEL’S air, land and sea blockade of Lebanon, which includes jet fighter strikes against the airport in Beirut, presages a new era in the Middle East, one in which the center has collapsed and Muslim and Jewish extremists, capable only of the language of violence, determine the parameters of existence. These strikes, like the suicide bombings carried out by Islamic militants in Iraq or Israel, expose the Ahab-like self-immolation that now inflects the region. And unless it is halted soon, unless those fueling these conflicts learn to speak another language, unless they break free from an indulgence in collective necrophilia, the Middle East will slip into a death spiral.

This has been a long time coming. The Bush administration never had any interest in helping to broker Middle Eastern peace agreements. This willful negligence was seen as befriending Israel, along with the bizarre demands of the Christian right. In fact, the administration befriended only an extreme political wing in Israel that, since the death of Yitzhak Rabin, has done a pretty effective job of endangering the Jewish state by dismantling all mechanisms for peace and turning Israel into an international pariah. As the machinery of Middle Eastern diplomacy rusted shut with disuse it was gleefully replaced by harsher Israeli closures, curfews, shelling and airstrikes. Palestinians have, since Bush arrived in office, been reduced by Israel to a subsistence existence matched only by Africans’. And the tools of repression against Palestinians now match those once imposed on South African blacks by the apartheid regime, with the exception that the South Africans never sent warplanes to bomb the townships.

Two more things. Isn't that image above similar to the description of Hell? And I hope you appreciate the service I don't supply. Believe me there are much, MUCH more horrific images out there I could post. Even this ugly picture of an area of Lebanon in flames is nothing.

Embrionic Stem Cell Research. Shrubs First Veto?

Its about time this bill is introduced and long past time for passage. The US, which arguably has some of the finest research facilities in the world, is falling way behind other countries which has not only medical, but financial implications.

BTW, does that look like any baby you've ever seen? Just asking.

Majority Leader Bill Frist predicted on Friday the U.S. Senate would pass legislation next week expanding federal stem cell research, likely triggering a veto from President George W. Bush with unpredictable political repercussions.

Bush has vowed to cast his first veto to block the research that many believe could lead to new treatments for diseases including diabetes and Parkinson's. The president says it is morally unacceptable to destroy an embryo even for scientific research.

But those who back the research, including some Republicans like Frist who also oppose abortion rights, note that excess embryos at fertility clinics would be destroyed anyway and should be used in research that could revolutionize medicine during the next decade.

Complete Unmitigated Bullshit

President Bush refused to press Israel for a cease-fire in Mideast violence Friday, risking a wider breach with world leaders at a weekend summit already confronting crises with Iran and North Korea.

Flying here from Germany, Bush called the leaders of Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan to explore ways to end three days of furious fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Turning aside complaints that Israel is using excessive force, Bush rejected a cease-fire plea from Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.

"The president is not going to make military decisions for Israel," White House press secretary Tony Snow said. He said it was unlikely that either side would agree to a cease-fire now. [emphasis mine]

The moron-in-chief has made a military decision for Israel and it's to bomb the hell out of Lebanon.

This is a completely one sided battle given Israel's (mostly US supplied) military strength. Israel is showing no restraint and no compassion for innocents.

Hey, now I get it, duh. It's the Bushco game plan. Attack like a rabid dog and innocent civilians be damned. Why not? Its worked so well in Afganistan and Iraq.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Slipping Into All-Out War...

Israel unleashed a furious military campaign on Lebanon's main airport, highways, military bases and other targets Thursday, retaliating for scores of Hezbollah guerrilla rockets that rained down on Israel and reached as far as Haifa, its third-largest city, for the first time.

Israel kept up the barrage early Friday with airstrikes in south Beirut where Hezbollah is headquartered, Lebanese police and witnesses said. Three people were killed and dozens wounded, Lebanese police said. [emphasis mine]

This sounds to me very much like "All-Out War" in spite of the fact 100's or 1,000's of people haven't been killed yet. And judging by the AP photo above, it looks very much like "All-Out War" too.

Middle East Aggression

This from The Hill Blog wherein Ackerman is prancing before his constituents.:

By N.Y. Dem. Rep. Gary Ackerman on Politics

Hizbullah and Hamas are terrorist organizations with national sponsors and the international community needs to recognize these thugs and killers for what they really are: bloody-thirsty zealots opposed to peace, opposed to negotiation and opposed to settlement. If the world is serious about peace in the Middle East, then Tehran and Damascus need to be held accountable for feeding, fostering, and occasionally unleashing, these rabid, blood-spattered killers. The money, weapons and political support Hizbullah and Hamas receive from Iran and Syria are not uncontrollable or natural phenomena and the international community must demand that they stop.

I label the kidnapping, acts of “unambiguous aggression and a malicious terrorist provocation.” Hizbullah and Hamas function as terrorist proxies for Syria and Iran, and the Israeli soldiers would not have been taken hostage without close coordination and approval by Damascus and Tehran.

In light of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza last year, and withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, this unprovoked aggression against Israel is completely unjustified and totally unacceptable. It’s more than past time for Lebanon to be freed from foreign interference so that it can meet its obligations under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559. The Lebanese have to become capable of policing their own borders and disarming all the militias, especially Hizbullah. Lebanon should be run by the Lebanese and not a pack of vicious religious fanatics in the service of Syria’s despot or Iran’s mullahs.

These cross-border attacks on Israel should result in tough international sanctions on Syria and Iran, and the UN Security Council should immediately pursue this option. In the mean time, I have complete confidence in Israel’s leaders and Israel’s armed forces. They are more than up to the task of protecting the country. Israel has an absolute right to defend itself from this aggression and the Israeli Defense Forces has shown it knows how to do this. [emphasis mine]

I'm wondering why he just didn't keep going and call for US attacks on Syria, Lebanon and Iran. Jesus Christ on social security, we hear enough of this shit all the time from the GOP. We don't need Dems piling on too.

And of course he has confidence in Israel's armed forces. The US has armed them to the teeth. They're a fucking 500 lb. gorilla.

Cooler heads must prevail or this tinderbox is gonna become a full scale conflagration.

"The Kiss"

I hope, I hope, I hope.

In today's intense Democratic politics in Connecticut, "The Kiss" does not refer to great works of art. Speak of "The Kiss" and you conjure up an embrace immediately after the President's State of the Union address in January 2005. The embrace was between George Bush and the state's junior senator, Joe Lieberman. A better name for it would be the kiss of Judas - or the kiss of death.

Cat Blogging

Israel-Lebanon Is Getting Teh Serious

Hardly a decent title, but... This is getting out of hand faster than Bushco in Iraq. Where are the peace brokers? Here's something from someone "on the ground":

This will have serious repercussions in Lebanese politics. It could start another civil war. The Shi’a overwhelmingly support Hizbullah and the other political parties of the March 14 alliance are in a bad spot. Who will reign in Hizbullah? Will Lebanon’s already fragile political arrangement collapse into a Shi’ites vs. everyone else arrangement, with Iran, Syria and Hizbullah on one side and Christians, Druze and Sunnis on the other backed up by … Israel? And/or the United States and France? I’m just not sure how many Christians will turn on Hizbullah, even though they blame them for bringing the wrath of Israel down on the country.

From my limited perspective it seems impossible for any of this to be without ramifications throughout the Middle East. It appears the neocons are getting exactly what they were looking for, complete instability in Afganistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palistine, etc. Everything ripe for Bushco to take control which its incapable of doing.

Adobe Clarification Time

Must Read IMHO

When will most Americans realise blind support of Israel will lead US to WWIII? This snippet from Red State Son.

War is what Israel does best, and we're about to get a full bloody plate of it.

Well, not we good Americans -- not directly, anyway. Not until some pissed-off jihadists decide to answer our bankrolling of this present round of aggression with God knows what. Because, like it or not, every Israeli missile that hits residential Beirut (and elsewhere) comes courtesy of our collective pocket. Might as well have "Howdy From The USA!" painted on each shell. When Israel attacks, we attack, a reality that a lot of Americans either ignore, dismiss, or in some corners, celebrate.

Security Bombshell

Larry C Johnson over at NO QUARTER says Suskind's new book, unlike the NYTimes, LATimes and WSJ actually did reveal a Top Secret operation not known to the public. The meat of it.

The Terrorism Section of the Department of Justice, on twenty-four-hour call, kicked into gear. In an arrangement with the U.S. Federal Court for the Eastern district of Virginia, based in Alexandria, they issued an instantaneous subpoena. It allowed Western Union--a U.S.-based company--to notify FBIK and CIA about which location the oney was being wired to, and who was picking it up. All of it occurred in minutes. Israeli intelligence ooficers were hailed. They raced, silently, to the right Western Union office in Hebron, and then followed the PIJ courier to his safe house in the West Bank. From there, electronic surveillance equipment swiftly tracked communications to other cells in the Palestinian territories.

I agree completely with Larry. This had nothing to do with spying on Americans and was effective in "following the money" of terrorists.

Bloggers Can Protect Sources

Just in case you bloggers visiting here haven't heard about this.

Apple Computer has decided not to appeal a California state appeals court ruling that went against the company in May and said bloggers were entitled to the same privacy privileges for their sources as mainstream journalists.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Sometimes Ya Just Wanna Punt

I'm gonna flip-flop here. At first I was sceptical Bushco would honor the SCOTUS decision in Hamdan vs Rumsfeld. Then I thought maybe I'm wrong and they've painted themselves into a corner and have to change. Then this.

As Congress opened hearings yesterday on the treatment of terrorism detainees, the Bush administration's view was neatly summarized by Steven Bradbury, the Justice Department lawyer serving as lead witness. "The president," Bradbury said, "is always right."

Its the idiot and Bushco saying "fuck you" to Americans.

OK, this is my final position on the topic. Bushco will ignore the SCOTUS and do anything they want until Congress stops them by impeachment or another country brings up Bushco on war crimes. There's a third possibility, but I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Maybe Its Just Me

This from a story about a speech Gen George W Casey Jr, the top U.S. commander in Iraq was giving to a group of Marines.

Casey said he was consulting with the Iraqi government on means of counteracting the violence. Asked whether that might include putting more U.S. troops in the Baghdad area, Casey replied, "It may, yes."

"We'll make sure there are adequate forces available for the Iraqis to succeed in Baghdad," he added. Rumsfeld said earlier Wednesday that the number of Iraqi and U.S. troops in Baghdad had recently grown from 40,000 to about 55,000. [emphasis mine]

You can read the whole article, but I had to single out the above. After 3 years in Iraq the United States military, most powerful military on the planet, hasn't been capable of securing Baghdad. That's one fucking city, folks. Now that's certainly no way to impress the world with our military might.

Cool Picture

The above photo showing a bizarre arc of lightning was captured near in southeastern France, near Menton, on May 10, 2006. Since the ground is charged opposite that of a cloud base, and will not discharge to itself, it's likely that this picture is showing two cloud-to-ground strokes. Perpsective makes it appear as though a single lightning bolt is arching above the hill top.

The Latest Huge Massacre

There are just so many ways to express horror over what's happening in Iraq so I hadn't mentioned this.

The day before yesterday was catastrophic. The day began with news of the killings in Jihad Quarter. According to people who live there, black-clad militiamen drove in mid-morning and opened fire on people in the streets and even in houses. They began pulling people off the street and checking their ID cards to see if they had Sunni names or Shia names and then the Sunnis were driven away and killed. Some were executed right there in the area. The media is playing it down and claiming 37 dead but the people in the area say the number is nearer 60.

The horrific thing about the killings is that the area had been cut off for nearly two weeks by Ministry of Interior security forces and Americans. Last week, a car bomb was set off in front of a 'Sunni' mosque people in the area visit. The night before the massacre, a car bomb exploded in front of a Shia husseiniya in the same area. The next day was full of screaming and shooting and death for the people in the area. No one is quite sure why the Americans and the Ministry of Interior didn't respond immediately. They just sat by, on the outskirts of the area, and let the massacre happen. [emphasis mine]

Iraq? Sovereignty? Surely You Jest

Iraq will ask the United Nations to end immunity from local law for U.S. troops, the government said on Monday, as the U.S. military named five soldiers charged in a rape-murder case that has outraged Iraqis.

"If we don't get that, then we'll ask for an effective role in the investigations that are going on. The Iraqi government must have a role." [said Human Rights Minister Wigdan Michael]

The day before handing formal sovereignty back to Iraqis in June 2004, the U.S. occupation authority issued a decree giving its troops immunity from Iraqi law. That remains in force and is confirmed by U.N. Security Council Resolution 1546 on Iraq.

A country does not have any kind of sovereignty, "formal" or otherwise, when it is occupied by soldiers of a foreign power and it has to ask "permission" of the United Nations or the occupying power to be in charge of its own territory.

Monbiot Always Seems To Have His Own "Take" On Things

Here are his arguments against nuclear energy plants. I should add he writes for The Guardian UK. A snippet.

And how does any system – political or technological – cope with the timescales involved? If, as a result of slow leakage into the groundwater, radioactive materials from a burial site kill an average of only one person a year for one million years, those who made the decision to bury them will – through their infinitesimal and unrecorded impacts – be responsible for the deaths of a million people.

It has also become clear that we will never rid the world of nuclear weapons if we do not also rid it of nuclear power. Every state which has sought to develop a weapons programme over the past 30 years – Israel, South Africa, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Iraq and Iran – has done so by manipulating its nuclear power programme. We cannot deny other states the opportunity to use atomic energy if we do not forswear it ourselves.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Please Define Civil War For Me

Militia gunmen went on the rampage in a Sunni district of Baghdad on Sunday, killing dozens of people in the bloodiest of many outbreaks of sectarian violence that have raised fears of civil war.

The shooting began in an area close to a Shi'ite mosque in mainly Sunni west Baghdad, where a car bomb killed three people late on Saturday. Houses were also burning, police said.

An Interior Ministry source said at least 38 people had been killed in Jihad district, while politicians from the once-dominant Sunni Arab minority put the provisional death toll at least 40, including women and children.

Both police and politicians blamed rogue police commandos and the Mehdi Army militia of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr for the killings, but officials from Sadr's movement, part of the ruling Shi'ite Islamist bloc, denied any involvement.

"These attacks prove the militias want to dragIraq into civil war," said Adnan al-Dulaimi, a leader of the main Sunni political bloc which is already boycotting parliament over the kidnapping of a fellow Sunni leader. The finger of blame in that case has been pointed at Shi'ite militias. [emphasis mine]

Civil war is happening in Iraq and in a civil war, an outsider (read US) doesn't belong or help. The carnage is going to be horrible, but our troops won't stop it and could very well make matters worse.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Jesus!

This is horrid.

A mob of gunmen went on a brazen daytime rampage through a predominantly Sunni Arab district of western Baghdad on Sunday, pulling people from their cars and homes and killing them in what officials and residents called a spasm of revenge by Shiite militias for the bombing of a Shiite mosque on Saturday. Hours later, two car bombs exploded beside a Shiite mosque in another Baghdad neighborhood in a deadly act of what appeared to be retaliation.

While Baghdad has been ravaged by Sunni-Shiite bloodletting in recent months, even by recent standards the violence here on Sunday was frightening, delivered with impunity by gun-wielding vigilantes on the street. In the culture of revenge that has seized Iraq, residents all over the city braced for an escalation in the cycle of retributive mayhem between the Shiites and Sunnis that has threatened to expand into civil war.

The violence coincided with an announcement by American military officials that they had formally accused four more American soldiers of rape and murder, and a fifth soldier of "dereliction of duty" for failing to report the crimes, in connection with the deaths of a teenage Iraqi girl and three members of her family.

The US has to get out of Iraq before one tribe takes control. One tribe may ultimately take control, but the US presence isn't helping matters.

WTF Kind Of Trend Is This?

Just in.

A nine-year-old girl of the Apurina tribe in Brazil's Amazon rainforest gave birth to a baby earlier this week and doctors said on Friday police were investigating whether she was raped.

"We know of early pregnancies in some tribes, but I have never heard of a nine-year-old getting pregnant and giving birth before," said Christiane da Costa, a doctor in the hospital where the girl underwent a Caesarean section on Wednesday in Manaus, the capital of the Amazon state.

A spokesman for the local healthcare administration said they had no reports of such cases in the Amazon state "at least for several decades".

And this case in Rwanda.

A nine-year old girl who were defiled and impregnated has finely given birth to a healthy baby boy at Butare University Hospital south of the country, local media reported here Friday.

I've also recently read a report of another 9 year old girl in Africa giving birth, but can't find a link. Sorry.

I have a good friend who is an 8 year old child. To imagine she could be preggers and a mother at 9 years of age is disgusting. But this shit happens. It probably happens much more than we know.

Must Read IMHO

Over at My Left Wing there's a fine post about trickle-down economics that actually trickle up. If Maryscott is wrong, she would appreciate your critique, but I would suggest only if you have the qualifications.

Gitmo Stuff

The Bush administration is for the first time debating the very real possibility that Guantanamo be shut down entirely. It is the first prolonged and serious debate and review of the issue, according to people who are in the know. That debate and the road to whatever final decision is made by the President (and the decision will be his) is probably not only going to be an important news story, but almost certaintly also decision making process that will be examined again and again by future historians of the Bush presidency.

More... as I know more, if I am able to find out much.

The thing is, this would change absolutely nothing except the geographic location of detainees. Gitmo is an albatross to the Repugs and they can make a big show of closing it as if the torture were confined to that prison only. More smoke and mirrors folks. Its all for your amusement.

Are We Near The Entrance To The Rabbit Hole?

Again I plead guilty. This whole post is stolen from the Huffington Post. Better I steal it than you, huh?

In the span of four years, the Bush Administration has been forced to rethink the pre-emptive "Bush doctrine" with which it hoped to remake the world as the strategy's ineffectiveness is exposed by the very policies it prescribed, TIME's Mike Allen and Romesh Ratnesar report in this weeks cover story on 'The End of Cowboy Diplomacy' on newsstands Monday, July 9th.

President George W. Bush came to office pledging to focus on domestic issues and pursue a "humble" foreign policy that would avoid the entanglements of the Bill Clinton years. After Sept. 11, however, the Bush team embarked on a different path, outlining a muscular, idealistic, and unilateralist vision of American power and how to use it, TIME reports. They aimed to lay the foundation for a grand strategy to fight Islamic terrorists and rogue states, by spreading democracy around the world and pre-empting gathering threats before they materialize. And the U.S. wasn't willing to wait for others to help. The approach fit with Bush's personal style, his self-professed proclivity to dispense with the nuances of geopolitics and go with his gut. "The Bush Doctrine is actually being defined by action, as opposed to by words," Bush told Tom Brokaw aboard Air Force One in 2003.

The swaggering Commander in Chief who embodied the doctrine's aspirations has modulated himself too. At a press conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in May, Bush swore off the Wild West rhetoric of getting enemies "dead or alive," conceding, "in certain parts of the world, it was misinterpreted." Bush's response to the North Korean missile test was equally revealing. Under the old Bush Doctrine, defiance by a dictator like Kim Jong Il would have merited threats of punitive U.S. action-or at least a tongue lashing. Instead, the Administration has mainly been talking up multilateralism and downplaying Pyongyang's provocation. As much as anything, it's confirmation of what Princeton political scientist Gary J. Bass calls "doctrinal flameout." Put another way: cowboy diplomacy, RIP.

The obvious question is...what took you so fucking long? Bushco has been destroying everything American for years and only now do the MSM get a clue. Jeeze!

The Fucking Cowards On The Right

I was just surfing a few winger sites. Funny thing, but most don't allow comments. Now I realise some progressives don't too (Billmon, Wolcott to name a couple), but they're ours and we can forgive them.

How arrogant or self-important must one be to refuse to let others critique them?

If I fuck up, fine. Call me on it. If you disagree with me, fine. Challenge me. If I can't defend my position, it was shit in the first place.

This internets isn't your personal soapbox with no feedback. Open up the comments. Take the hits. Clean the spam. Moderate. But let us respond to your silly ass titty baby remarks.

So Much Bluster

This really is sort of silly. Several countries could blow NoKo back to the stone age and they have no ability to attack the US. This is all bluster, but it does indicate diplomacy is sorely needed.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il vowed no compromise and said he was braced for "all-out war" as the United States and Japan pushed for the United Nations to impose new sanctions on Pyongyang for its missile tests.

With China and Russia holding out against further isolating the impoverished communist state, a US envoy visiting the region also stressed a diplomatic solution on disarmament and urged the North to come back to stalled six-nation talks on its nuclear program.

But Kim Jong-Il, in his first reported remarks since his regime lobbed seven missiles into the sea Wednesday, pledged not to give up his weapons programs.

"The General has declared that not even a tiny concession will be made to the imperialist US invaders, our arch enemy," said a broadcast on North Korean state television, as monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

Maybe America Is Waking Up

Consdider the following responses to this guy.

Crazy guy, yelling: Macaroni and cheese! [No one responds.] With chocolate mousse on top! [No one responds.] Mashed potatoes and gravy! [No one responds.] George Bush is bringing peace to the world through strength and diplomacy!Woman: Shut up!

About Me

Spent many years programming, mostly mainframes. Been in business for myself, sky dived, scuba dived, practiced karate (until the broken ribs & finger), driven a sprint car (unreal). Want the US to be great again and worry it's impossible. I consider myself a moderate because I believe most Americans don't approve of torture, do want everyone to have health care, a pension and/or a job, privacy, freedom and NO WAR. Not too radical. I use profanity like a sailor so you should leave if you are sensitive.

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